Section: CRUNS Features

A complete listing of all articles and news items that appeared in Nitrogen+Syngas magazine during 2020.

The year 2020 will be remembered as an uncertain, demanding and challenging year. When faced with a global pandemic, companies have adopted new approaches and remote inspection, monitoring and training using the latest digital tools has been key for the successful completion of projects. Stamicarbon, Casale and KBR share some of their experiences of the past year.

NOx emissions from chemical processes such as steam methane reforming contribute to air pollution. The chemical industry is required to take steps to lower such emissions. Technology, developed for related industries, can be designed and optimised to reduce NOx emissions from steam methane reformers. Emission control experts can use a combination of modelling and experience to guide plant operators in recommending and designing optimum, sometimes tailor-made solutions. In this article different options are discussed including low NOx burners, selective catalytic reduction, selective non-catalytic reduction and high emissivity ceramic coatings.

Natural gas pricing remains the dominant component of ammonia production costs. The fall in global oil and gas prices due to the Covid outbreak and the continued growth in the LNG market is continuing to break the hold of oil indexation on gas pricing. Meanwhile, reform of gas markets continues, in places as diverse as Brazil, China and India.

Part 1 of a two part look at a potential sustainable future for the nitrogen industry, looking at sustainable nitrogen management and nutrient use efficiency.

This year the CRU Nitrogen + Syngas conference is going virtual. From 1 to 3 March 2021, the CRU virtual event will offer a live and on-demand agenda, interactive exhibition and enhanced networking capabilities on a platform tailored to make remote access as easy as possible.

Dr MP Sukumaran Nair, policy analyst and director of the Centre for Green Technology & Management in Cochin, India, discusses the ways that digitisation is improving fertilizer plant operation.

In a carbon-constrained world, carbon capture and utilisation or storage (CCUS) installed on a methanol plant is a necessary and feasible solution. The new, patented AdWinMethanol CC® technology, jointly developed by thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG and GasConTec GmbH, integrates carbon capture into large-scale, natural gas-fuelled methanol production to yield a drastically reduced carbon footprint. U. Koss and W. Balthasar of GasConTec and J. Wagner of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions discuss how it removes CO 2 emissions in an efficient, cost effective, and environmentally friendly manner, taking advantage of the design features of AdWinMethanol ® .

Malte Plewa, Volker Schmidt, Daniel Ávila and Enrico Rubertus of German development agency GIZ and Dr. Silke Karcher of the German Environment Ministry (BMU) discuss action on climate change from nitric acid production and the Nitric Acid Climate Action Group (NACAG) and its global initiative for mitigating emissions.

By harnessing the power of real-time data and exploiting the opportunities provided by digital solutions plant owners can achieve greater plant efficiency and reliability. In this article Stamicarbon shows the benefits of the Stami Digital Plant Optimiser for urea plants, OnPoint Digital Solutions provides a case study on optimising primary reformer heater operations using Smart Combustion™ , TOYO provides an update on its digital transformation service DX-PLANT® and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions provides examples of how digital solutions can be used to improve plant operation.